The problem, however, is that the penalties for those who violate the ban don't have a lot of teeth --
violators face a fine of up to $500 and the possibility of up
to 15 days in jail.

As we noted yesterday, we have a feeling that if
you're at a place in your life where you've resorted to using bath salts
to get high, a mere 15 days in the hoosegow probably isn't the end of
the world.

We've all seen how (ahem) successful the "War on Drugs" has been, and with useless solutions to a serious problem, the war on synthetic drugs seems as though it will suffer a similar fate.

The problem with "punishing" bath salt users is that it does nothing to prevent people from getting their hands on bath salts -- they are easy to attain on the Internet and in various "head shops" across the country. Nor does it do anything to let people know that taking bath salts could potentially lead to cannibalism -- and other serious health issues.

Technically, synthetic drugs are legal. However, federal and state laws require that "all consumer commodities, at a minimum, be labeled to describe net contents, identity of the product, and the name and place of business of the product's manufacturer, packer, and distributor."

In other words, the only way a bath-salt distributor will get in trouble for selling drugs that potentially turn people into cannibals is by calling it "incense," or some other misleading name -- which apparently happens fairly frequently.

Granted, outlawing the sale of bath salts will likely lead to an even blacker market for the drug, but it would at least make it tougher to get than simply clicking a few buttons on the web -- when it's that easy, people tend to think the drugs aren't that bad.

If you ask us, until laws are changed to prevent the sale of bath salts -- and people realize that the drug could potentially turn them into cannibals -- the Zombie Apocalypse is still upon us.

We want to know what you think, though: will Cuomo's ban do anything to curb bath salt use?

We Recommend

* Prohibition has been a slow but relentless degradation (death by a zillion cuts) of all our cherished national institutions, that will leave us crippled for numerous generations.

* The US federal government is now the most dangerous and corrupt corporation on the planet.

* In 1989, 'The Kerry Committee' found that the United States Department of State had made payments to drug traffickers. Concluding, that even members of the U.S. State Department, themselves, were involved in drug trafficking. Some of the payments were made even after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies - or even while these traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies.

* Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

* The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.

* Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. Approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc.

* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who so desire.

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.

* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement, even whole governments while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.

* The CIA was/is running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and moving Cocaine from Central America. This has been well documented—by the 1989 Kerry Committee, as well as academic researchers such as Alfred McCoy, Peter Dale Scott, and the late Gary Webb.

* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.

* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.

* Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of the opium poppy. An estimated 44 % of the heroin produced in Afghanistan, with an estimated annual destination value of US $ 27 Billion, transits through Pakistan. Prohibition has essentially destroyed Pakistan's legal economy and social fabric. We may be about to witness the planet's first civil war in a nation with nuclear capabilities. - Kindly Google 'A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS' Only those opposed or willing to ignore these facts want things the way they are.

* The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation—Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

* Many important advancements in human society, even the reasonable requirement that gynecologists wash their hands before examining a patient, have invariably been resisted by unconscionable, selfish individuals, who maliciously use fear and mendacity while sacrificing the well-being of the rest of us.

Prohibition; never have so many been endangered and impoverished by so few so quickly!

* The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it. —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American editor, essayist and philologist.

* 2010 Reported Corporate Revenues:

Johnson & Johnson = $61.90 billion

Pfizer= $50.01 billion

GlaxoSmithKline = $45.83 billion

Novartis = $44.27

Sanofi-Aventis = $41.99 billion

AstraZeneca = $32.81 billion

Merck & Co. = $27.43 billion

Eli Lilly = $21.84 billion

Anheuser-Busch InBev (2007) = $16.70 billion

MillerCoors = $3.03 billion

Pabst = $0.50 billion

* As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, or even simply tolerate it by looking the other way while others commit it, you are an accessory to a very serious moral transgression against humanity.

* The United States re-legalized certain drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment re-legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result, and very soon after, the American economy climbed out of that same prohibition engendered abyss into which it had foolishly fallen.

‎"Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution."